Today Is ...

October 13, 2024, at home

Today is the U.S. Navy's 249th birthday (founded in 1775).

My father retired at the rank of Commander after serving for twenty-two (22) years in the U.S. Navy, both on active duty and in the reserves. My mother worked for the U.S. Navy as a civilian.

My dad was stationed in Hawaii in and around 1958. A few years before that, he served aboard a Navy ship, transporting displaced persons (delayed pilgrims, as he called them) multiple times from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York City after World War II.

After his death in 1997 at age 62, some of his ashes were scattered from a Navy ship into the North Atlantic Ocean, where he spent much of his time in the Navy. The rest of his ashes were interred at Breslau Cemetery in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. (Lindenhurst was formerly named Breslau after the city in Germany.)

October 13, 2024, at home

When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, my mom made a version of Yorkshire Pudding but without the gravy. They are called Popovers, and we ate them with lots of butter. My wife, who is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has made Yorkshire Pudding for me.